Hindustan Times
Which words do you love to hate?
The Guardian’s books blog has reported how some poets at a recent literary festival were asked which word each of them hated and why.
Here is what the poet Philip Wells said: “‘Pulchritude’ is certainly up there on my blacklist. It violates all the magical impulses of balanced onomatopoeic language — it of course means ‘beautiful’, but its meaning is nothing of the sort, being stuffed to the brim with a brutally latinate cudgel of barbaric consonants. If consonants represent riverbanks and vowels the river’s flow, this is the word equivalent of the bottomless abyss of dry bones, where demons gather to spit acid.”
Well…
The Guardian blog opened the matter up for debate, and received 1,500 responses from readers.
Here is a very random and very perfunctory list of the words/phrases I hate.
feedback
met with
based out of
reporting into
heads-up (to mean “I’ll let you know)
heads up (to mean merely ‘heads’/ ‘is the head of’)
revert
align (to mean agree)
on the same page
exited
hospitalize (and its variants)
pulchritude (yes, I agree with Wells)
No, I won’t go on. If I do, I shall get nothing else done today.
Send in your lists of words/phrases that make you cringe.
(3 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
Loading ...Posted by Soumya Bhattacharya on Monday, July 27, 2009 at 6:38 pm
Filed under Books · Tagged barbaric consonants, Guardian, Philip Wells, phrases, Pulchritude, words
Actually, I really hate it when people say ‘revert back’ - but then, that’s wrong English rather than a cliched word.
And of course, there is ‘paradigm’.
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Soumya Reply:
July 29th, 2009 at 3:02 pm
‘Revert back’ makes me wince. ‘Revert’ makes me wince. Yes, ‘paradigm’ and its shifts, yes…
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geographies
praxis
mortality audit
huge funds
reply back
he wished me on my birthday
on the same wavelength
timeframe
clean chit
since long
There will be more, I promise.
R
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Soumya Reply:
July 29th, 2009 at 3:04 pm
Many thanks. Please let’s keep this going…
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i feel sad when people use the word AWESOME.my heart shrinks a little bit.
Hey soumya ,almost all of the words that you mentioned are the ones that float around in a corporate office.i wonder how you feel?
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Soumya Reply:
July 29th, 2009 at 3:05 pm
I feel awful. And, yes, awesome is repugnant.
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How about the official sounding “enclosed herewith” and “comprising of”?
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Soumya Reply:
July 29th, 2009 at 3:06 pm
I shudder when I ‘peruse’ them.
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anyways - always wondered why the plurality…
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Soumya Reply:
July 29th, 2009 at 3:07 pm
It’s a clunky Americanism. Like ‘met with’…
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Deb Reply:
July 29th, 2009 at 4:22 pm
No, it’s not as simple as an Americanese(!) like ‘met with’, which is plain incorrect English like ‘revert back’ (why do they always add unnecessary words? probably to make it ‘high sounding’).
In my time, there used to be two separate words - anyway and anyways. Anyway would mean something like ‘regardless’ or ‘notwithstanding’ (a couple of monstrosities themselves (:-)!). And anyways would mean, well, practically nothing. But these days, it has become a fashion to replace anyway with anyways at all times, and I’d guess it’s mainly done by people who are not sure of the grammar, or wouldn’t care.
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Soumya Reply:
July 29th, 2009 at 7:57 pm
Or can’t tell the difference, um, anyway(s)…
Happening!
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Soumya Reply:
July 29th, 2009 at 3:09 pm
It is as much of a cliche as an anachronism — or ought to be.
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rocking.
it’s annoying, this word.
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Soumya Reply:
July 29th, 2009 at 3:10 pm
It’s more than annoying: it’s cringe-inducing. ‘Rocking’ stopped rocking ages ago.
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You are right, ANYWAYS is really one too many. One can excuse AWESOME only in the very young - say, pre-schoolers and younger !!!
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Soumya Reply:
July 29th, 2009 at 3:14 pm
I thoroughly agree with you — pre-school children and younger is about right.
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haha..nice post
‘Whats up’ or ‘wassup’ or even bud inspired ‘wazzzzzaaaa’
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All three…
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It’s not a word, rather a phrase, but isn’t “out of the box” also cringe-inspiring?
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Deb Reply:
July 29th, 2009 at 4:32 pm
And how about “I am good” (in response to “How are you”, or rather “Howdy”!). Though it’s become so ubiquitous these days that pointing it out may be hugely unpopular, what exactly do you mean when you say that? How do I know you are a ‘good’ and not ‘bad’ person - just because you tom-tom it (and I’m supposed to accept it at face value)? Evokes a cringe every time.
I rather preferred (and still use) “I’m alright” or “I’m OK”, old fashioned as it may sound.
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R Reply:
July 29th, 2009 at 8:11 pm
Absolutely. “I am good” is disgusting.
However, I also think that there is some kind of generational divide here.
Gen 1 : Grew up believing, alongwith their parents and teachers, that grammar is important.
Gen 2 : Grew up experimenting with bad grammar but earned the displeasure of their parents and teachers.
Gen 3 : Has Gen 2 for parents and teachers, and so is able to disregard grammar almost completely. If Gen 1 cringes, so be it.
SMS and email have only hastened the demise of grammar. Wren and Martin are just birds today. As for cliches, they are all part of the same trend. If you go through the city supplements of any newspaper in the country, you will lose count of such specimens, used repeatedly with confidence and a certain “We are like that only” swagger.
People like us can shed tears over this blog but English in India is here to stay, the way she is spoken and written today. None less than David Crystal acknowledges it.
For kind perusal and comments, please ):- ):-
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Deb Reply:
July 30th, 2009 at 3:56 pm
Talking of city newspapers, much less supplements, even their English sometimes tends to drive one up the wall. There was time in my childhood when my father used to exhort me to read newspapers regularly to improve my English. Now, I wouldn’t recommend that to any one, let alone a child/youngster. I even constructed a site on Google Sites to record for posterity (and for my own satisfaction) the howlers going around in one of the most prestigious & influential business dailies - haven’t been able to keep it updated!(:-)
And what about the teachers (Gen 2?). The kind of language my Std. 3 grade son comes back with in his school exercise books makes me cry, and he is in one of the best school chains. And the most difficult part is - you’ve to emphasise the correct English (against the patent inaccuracies perpetrated by the teachers) while not harming the teacher’s image in the child’s mind, which could have other consequences.
Perhaps it’s only in blogs like this (and http://tomatonation.com/?p=578&cpage=1#comment-35624) that PLUs with Gen 1 sensibilities can vent themselves.
Soumya Reply:
July 30th, 2009 at 4:21 pm
Vent, vent, vent away… I think I should next week post a new list of words we all love to hate.
Deb Reply:
August 3rd, 2009 at 1:40 pm
That would be the day, Soumya. Be my guest. I’m sure the response would smash all records till date to the smithereens (sorry for all the cliches (:-)!).
‘Out of the box’ is terrible. And ‘I’m good’ is another fatuous one. Try ‘I am very well, thank you.’
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Soumya Reply:
August 3rd, 2009 at 2:10 pm
The list of all the words you love to hate is coming up on the evening of Monday, August 3. Hope to see you all back here…
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Please replace all my earlier entries with the biggest cringe-inducing phrase I can think of - WALK THE TALK. I have stopped reading a certain newspaper on certain days because of this one.
One thought WALKIE TALKIE was cute, since it described the gadget so accurately. But Walk the Talk and its revolting Siamese twin, Talk the Walk deserve to banished to some icy wasteland.
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No, no, why should we replace the previous entries? We’ll add this one, perhaps in ALL CAPITALS.
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I generally have problems with words which:
1.lLook like a full-grown caterpillar from a distance (counterrevolutionary);
2. are Z opulent (razzmatazz);
3. feature unnecessary affinity among 3/4 different vowels (man-o-e-u-vre/onomatop-o-e-i-a) that can expose that you are no spelling bee wizard;
4. tend to start with Sch (schmaltzed).
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Soumya Reply:
August 1st, 2009 at 11:33 am
Interesting choices, although I am not sure I would agree with all of them. No matter, all will go up on the expanded list in the post on Monday.
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Hello, please also add to the list that expression of universal affection : “Dear All”.
Round it off with the signature, “Best” !
Both of which have no meaning. Therefore they qualify for a place on this list.
This blog is such fun !
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Soumya Reply:
August 1st, 2009 at 11:36 am
Done. Expect to see them in the new list next week. I’m pleased to hear that you think this blog is fun.
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hot
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Cool.
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hi Soumya!!!
This is my very first blog i ever read…..the topic you raise is really cool…i am a 20 year engineering student and practicing for grammatically correct English speaking from the last one year……u really put a great effort to correct English and i believe that it should be read by every youngster….
Right now,i am not so good to tell u the incorrect words but i really love to write here(of course,very first time again).
It is very humble that most of the youngsters use wrong English with their shoulders up….sad….
I hope we all try to understand the importance of correct English as soon as possible….
Like to read this blog again next week….
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Soumya Reply:
August 5th, 2009 at 2:18 pm
Keep at it, the practising and the reading…
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GREAT. It really grates. Everything and anything seems to be great nowadays, a catch-all replacement for almost any positive adjective…
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Great.
Seen the consolidated list I put up from readers?
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Dont forget : “mind blowing” . It actually blows my fuse if not mind
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The word: “killer”.
Meaning: Great or extra ordinary
Pronunciation: Kill-lar (emphasis on the ‘lar’)
Synonyms: Awesome, Mind blowing, etc
Usage: “the gig/party was killer man!” / “she was looking killer man”.
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Saying that, along with its synonyms, should be made a punishable offence. How about you compile the new list of words all of you love to hate?
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